Ballad Of Deception
by Shadow Of Grace
Summary: Alfred's story isn't one to be read to children, nor any man or woman faint of heart, but it must be told. Not only to honor the brave Alfred Franklin Jones and the little girl with pigtails and indigo eyes, but the most bloodthirsty of pirates shown to have the purest of hearts, and most of all the heroic Amelia Jones, a broken girl who will never fade. Pirate!EnglandXFem!America.
1. Prologue

**Grace: **Haha! I have not actually died! Well, not yet. I'm sure funeral preparations will have to be made once my darling readers realize that I've spent my time writing another fanfic rather than updating the numerous others that have been horribly neglected. . . heh heh, whoops. Well anyway, I absolutely LOVE Pirate!England, but I was horribly disappointed by the lack of Pirate!EnglandXFem!America stories. Of course the few that there are are amazing, but it's still depressing how few there are. My solution: WRITE ONE!~ Now this is just the prologue - and an overly-dramatic one at that - but I am working on the first actual chapter, which should be out whenever I get off my lazy ass. I would be much more enticed to get off my lazy ass if people reviewed (hint hint), so review, people! Oh, and a special thanks to my awesome Beta, PhantomPrussia. The poor kid is going to go insane if I keep making stories, so give her some love.

**Prologue**

"Daddy? Why is the sky orange? I thought it was nighttime. . ."

"Stay here, Amelia. You and Madeline go to your room and lock the door."

"B-but daddy, where are you going?! It's loud out there, what's going on?!"

"Listen to me, Amelia! Take care of Madeline while I'm gone, alright? I promise I'll be back soon."

And with a weak smile he was gone. Sword in hand, Franklin Jones marched out to the panicked streets, standing bravely against the French pirates pouring into the small town. Two small girls neither older than seven huddled tightly in the corner of their room, both confused and scared.

Neither of the girls knew that Franklin Jones would never come back home. Neither of the girls knew what to do when the pirates broke down the door and stormed into the house. Neither of the girls knew what to do as the smaller of the two, Madeline, was carried away into the crowd as Amelia screamed and fought to no avail.

Amelia Jones died that night. She wasn't killed by pirates as so many others were, but killed by her own choking grief. In Amelia's stead rose Alfred F. Jones, a boy who wandered from one town to the next, small compared to the other boys his age yet armed with the heart of a hundred men. Alfred was a boy on a mission, searching every port town he could reach for pirates and Frenchmen alike, but most of all a young blonde girl with pigtails and indigo eyes.

Alfred's story isn't one to be read to children, nor any man or woman faint of heart, but it must be told. Not only to honor the brave Alfred Franklin Jones and the little girl with pigtails and indigo eyes, but the most bloodthirsty of pirates shown to have the purest of hearts, and most of all the heroic Amelia Jones, a broken girl who will never fade.


	2. Author's Note

**Grace:**

**Hey everyone.**

**I'd like to start off with an apology for all of my readers. All of you really do mean a lot to me, every single hit on this story makes me smile. The faves and follows never fail to improve my mood, even when I'm having the shittiest of days, and if I could hug every one of you I would. You reviewers, though. . . you guys really are the ones that inspire me to get off my procrastinating and incredibly lazy ass to get some writing done, and every single one literally makes me dance around like a lunatic; my cousins must think I need to be locked up at this point.**

**Unfortunately, life is a bitch – as I'm sure you all know. After dealing with some rather severe bullying problems and more than one hospital visit, I've ended up moving. Now I'm in a different state entirely, and though things are quite a bit easier for me now, I'm still dealing with physical and mental after effects. Now, please note that I am ****NOT ****fishing for sympathy, I haven't a doubt in my mind that I can't even begin to fathom the troubles that other people have. At this point I simply feel obligated to my amazing readers to explain why the hell it's taking me so long to update.**

**Now that I'm finally getting settled properly and on the road to a decent recovery, I'd like to pick up my writing again. After reading through my assorted stories, I was left utterly disgusted by the all-round quality – or lack thereof – of nearly every chapter. Frankly, I'm rather surprised that no one has pointed out the shoddiness of my writing yet. **

**More to the point, I've decided to do a full re-write of every story. Needless to say, this is no small undertaking, especially with the nearly two dozen other fanfics that I haven't quite gotten around to posting. In order to make everything a bit easier for me, I've made an entirely new account. All re-written fics will be uploaded as I get to them, and I promise that each and every story I've published thus far WILL be gotten to eventually, though I can't say quite when. A link for my new account (Pen name Forsaken Paradise) can be found on my profile.**

**Again, I would like to thank each of my readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers. All of you really have brought a bit of sunshine to my day – ironic given that it's storming at the moment – and I wish I could thank each of you individually, but unfortunately typing isn't very easy for me at the moment. Please do keep an eye out for the new version of this story, and I'll probably post a quick notice on here when I upload the fixed version. At the risk of being repetitive, thank you all for your support of my writing up to this point, and I hope to hear from you guys again. **

**Lots of love,**

**Grace.**


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